Key Stage 3 music · Understanding and history of music

KS3 music: popular music and world traditions explained

Key Stage 3 music asks pupils to appreciate “a wide range of musical contexts and styles”, and to use technology appropriately as they do so. In many schools that means exploring popular music, from blues and rock and roll to hip-hop and dance, alongside traditions from other parts of the world, such as gamelan, West African drumming, Indian classical music and bhangra. Pupils listen, perform and compose in a selection of these styles, and learn where each one came from.

Popular music and world traditions, explained

The curriculum is broad here: pupils should understand “a wide range” of styles and contexts, and the history of the music they perform and hear. It does not name a single genre, so each school makes its own choices, and no two schools’ units will match exactly. Some schools follow the story of popular music through the twentieth century, starting with blues and jazz and moving through rock and roll, soul, reggae, punk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Others work from a place, for instance a unit on the music of Indonesia, West Africa, India or the Caribbean. Many do both.

Whatever the style, pupils are taught to ask the same questions: where and why was this music made, who was it for, and how does it sound? Context might be a community celebration, a religious ceremony, a dance, a protest or a night out. Musical features might be a repeating chord pattern, a rhythm built from several drums, a scale or set of notes the style prefers, or a particular way of learning and sharing it. Blues has “blue notes” and a repeating chord pattern. Gamelan, an ensemble of tuned percussion from Indonesia, is built on cycles marked by a gong. Indian classical music uses a raga, a framework of notes for a melody, and a tala, a repeating rhythmic cycle. Reggae, which grew in Jamaica, puts strong accents on the off-beats.

Pupils also learn that many of these traditions are passed on by ear and by playing together, not mainly by reading notation. Learning a West African drum rhythm may mean listening, copying and keeping a part going while others play something different over it. This is a skill in its own right. Performing is a big part of the work: your child might play a twelve-bar blues on keyboard, join a call-and-response rhythm on percussion, or sing in a round, and they will usually be asked to compose something in the style too.

The second objective is about technology. Popular music in particular has been shaped by it. The electric guitar, multitrack recording, synthesisers, drum machines, sampling and modern computer-based recording programs all changed what musicians could do. Hip-hop grew in New York in the 1970s partly through DJs who looped sections of records on turntables, and today sampling is a standard creative technique. In class, pupils may use a keyboard, recording software or a sequencer to layer parts, loop a rhythm, edit sounds and mix the result. The goal is to use technology as a musical tool, with a clear reason for each choice.

Music also moves with people. Bhangra began as a folk tradition in the Punjab region of South Asia and was reshaped in Britain by young British Asian musicians who mixed it with disco, pop and later dance music. Learning about this helps pupils see that music in Britain has always drawn on many places, and that traditions change instead of staying frozen. You can support this by showing interest in the music your own family grew up with.

Words your child will hear

Genre: A style or category of music, such as blues, reggae or hip-hop, with typical sounds and history.
Improvisation: Making up music as you play, within a style or chord pattern.
Call and response: A pattern in which one voice or instrument plays a phrase and another answers it.
Ostinato: A short pattern repeated over and over, often a rhythm or bass line.
Sampling: Taking a short recorded sound or section of music and reusing it in a new piece.
Raga and tala: In Indian classical music, a raga is the framework of notes for a melody and a tala is the repeating rhythmic cycle.
Oral tradition: Music learned and passed on by listening and copying instead of by reading written notation.

What the National Curriculum says

The programme of study for Key Stage 3 says:

Pupils should be taught to develop a deepening understanding of the music that they perform and to which they listen, and its history
Pupils should use technologies appropriately and appreciate and understand a wide range of musical contexts and styles.

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Try it: building a twelve-bar blues

A pupil is asked to build a twelve-bar blues in the key of C, add a melody, and explain where this pattern comes from and where else it is heard. How could they approach it?

Start with the context. The blues developed in African American communities in the southern United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and is usually linked with work songs, spirituals and field hollers. Its shape later influenced jazz, rock and roll and a great deal of pop.
Choose the three chords. In the key of C the main chords are C, F and G, which are chords built on the first, fourth and fifth notes of the scale. Teachers often write these as I, IV and V.
Lay out twelve bars. A common pattern is four bars of C, two of F, two of C, one of G, one of F and two of C. Many versions play G in the last bar instead, shown in brackets, to lead back to the start. This is called a turnaround.
```
| C   | C   | C   | C   |
| F   | F   | C   | C   |
| G   | F   | C   | C (G) |
```
Add the melody using “blue notes”. A blues scale starting on C uses C, E♭, F, F♯, G and B♭. The E♭, F♯ and B♭ are the “blue notes”: compared with the ordinary C major scale they sit a little lower, on the third, fifth and seventh notes (the F♯ is sometimes written G♭), and they give the blues its bent, bittersweet sound. A typical vocal line sings a phrase, repeats it, then answers it with a new line.
Use technology with a purpose. Record the chords on keyboard, loop them, then play a melody over the top. Listen back and adjust the volume so the bass and the tune can both be heard.

“My twelve-bar blues in C uses chords I, IV and V (C, F and G) in a twelve-bar pattern. I used the blues scale, with its blue notes E♭, F♯ and B♭, for my melody and a call-and-response between my keyboard and my voice. The blues grew out of African American communities in the southern United States, and the same chord pattern is still heard in jazz, rock and roll and pop. I recorded and looped the chords so that I could improvise on top.”

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking “world music” is a single style from far away

The label is used in shops and on playlists to cover everything that is not Western classical or pop. Pupils can come to think of it as one thing, and assume it is somewhere else, when Britain has its own folk and migrant traditions.

What helps: Always name the tradition and the place: Javanese gamelan, West African drumming, Punjabi bhangra, English folk song. Ask your child to say something specific about how it sounds.

Believing popular music is simple, and classical music is automatically more serious

Pop songs are short and catchy, so they seem easy. In class, pupils sometimes pick up the idea that older or classical styles are the only ones worth analysing.

What helps: Use the same listening tools on both: structure, texture, rhythm, harmony and timbre. A good question is, “What would you have to change to make this song sound different?”

Assuming music that is not written down is less sophisticated

School music often leans on staff notation, so pupils may think that music without a score is casual or primitive.

What helps: Explain that many traditions pass on very complex rhythms and melodies by ear and by ensemble playing, and that memory and listening are skills. Try learning a short rhythm by ear together, without reading it.

Feeling that using technology or sampling is cheating

Pupils may think “real” music means live playing only, or that looping a sound means no creative effort.

What helps: Remind them that choosing, cutting and arranging sounds are musical decisions. Ask why they chose a particular loop, where it enters, and how it relates to the other parts.

How to help at home

Share your own playlists. Take turns choosing a song from your childhood and one from your child’s favourites. For each, ask what the beat is doing, what instruments they can hear and what the music is for: dancing, singing along or just relaxing.
Clap the pulse, then a pattern. Listen to a piece from another tradition and clap the steady beat, then tap a repeating pattern on top. Swap roles so one person keeps the beat while the other adds something different, which is how many drum ensembles work.
Try call and response. Use voices, a table or pots and wooden spoons (tapped gently, in a safe space). One person sets a short rhythm and the other copies or answers it, then you swap. It is a key feature of blues, gospel, many African traditions and much hip-hop.
Layer sounds with a phone or tablet. Record a rhythm on one phone or tablet, then play it back while you record a second part, such as a vocal or a hand-clap pattern, on another. Listen to the two together. Talk about what worked and what you would change, just as a producer would.
Go and hear it live. Community festivals, school concerts, church services, carnivals and local gigs often feature music from many traditions, and some are free. Afterwards ask your child what they saw that they could not tell from a recording, such as how the players watched one another.

Builds on

Key Stage 2: History of music: early to Classical
Key Stage 2: History of music: Romantic to modern